Jacobs Ladder: Their way or the highway

For three years, the members of Jacobs Ladder dreamed of playing South by Southwest. The festival, which last week concluded its 24th annual edition, features 2,000 acts on 80 stages throughout downtown Austin, Texas. For Jacobs Ladder, this year’s SXSW was even bigger and more-organized than they had imagined.

“[By day], there were conferences at the convention center where you got to meet the biggest people from labels and booking agents and managers of bands like the White Stripes and Vampire Weekend, the people who book Tegan and Sara,” bassist Sammy Gonzalez recalls. “They tell you about the business. It was really cool to be in the same room as them and to meet them after and shake their hand and give them a CD and a press kit. The wealth of knowledge was phenomenal.”

Nights were all about the shows. “You just go bar to bar, and it was really cool to see so many people into music,” Gonzalez says. “Every band was awesome, and I got to see a few bands that I’m in love with and I think are really, really sick.”

Gonzalez’s favorite SXSW moments included performances by Muse, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Miami’s Torche and, of course, Jacobs Ladders’ set with Relient K at the Dirty Dog Bar. “It was a great turnout,” Gonzalez says. “The sound was phenomenal at the bar we played. We just killed it, we rocked out. We were really happy with our performance and our set.”

Days after the festival’s end, Gonzalez discussed his hopes for the power-pop trio he formed eight years ago with singer-guitarist Oren Maisner and drummer Brian Hernandez. “We started when we were 16, and it was something we just did for fun,” Gonzalez explains. “We would play a show here and there, at Club Q, Churchill’s or the Alley.”

In 2007, Jacobs Ladder signed with JMB Records, the label owned by Jarett and Nevin Grushka, brothers of New Found Glorybassist Ian Grushka. As a result, the members of the band decided to ditch college and work jobs that accommodated their touring and recording schedules. Gonzalez and Maisner give private guitar lessons. Hernandez serves drinks at Miami Heat games.

This past November, Jacobs Ladder released its second album, Ours for the Taking, which was produced by New Found Glory drummer Cyrus Bolooki and which the band plans to promote tirelessly this year. “We’re realistic now about what we need, and this year we’re like, ‘All right, I want to play South by Southwest, Warped Tour, SunFest,” he says. “I want to do showcases. I want to try to land one tour by the end of the year with a bigger band because we feel like once we land one tour, it will snowball. We’re hoping that things just keep happening and it puts our name on the radar and that one guy comes along and says, ‘We really love what you’re doing’ and helps us to break it. Our goal is to break it by the end of the year and start touring more.

“We were in such a bubble before, being in Miami Beach all the time,” he continues. “And we realized how much nicer people can be everywhere else. If someone walked up to me and was like, ‘Hey, can I stay at your house?’ I’d say, ‘Um, what do you mean?’ I go on the road and it’s just normal. People are just so much looser.”

Gonzalez is confident that the band will accomplish its goals, an idea reflected in the title of Ours for the Taking and in songs such as “One Sword, One Sway.” Written before the 2008 presidential election, the song addresses the frustrations of trying to find the truth when politicians are corrupt, big corporations are screwing over the little guys, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. “We love America, we love capitalism,” Gonzalez says. “But I feel like there’s a point where you need checks and balances, and between the housing bubble and all that’s been going on and the lending, there haven’t been checks and people have been getting fucked in the ass. And that’s what that song’s about.”

Like other tunes on the band’s seven-song EP, “One Sword, One Sway” is really about triumph. “Yeah, we’re being screwed over, but we can change,” Gonzalez says. “We can come together and put the power back in our hands, because at the end of the day, we have the influence.”

Back from South by Southwest, Jacobs Ladder is gearing up for its big homecoming show Friday at Churchill’s Pub. The next morning, the band will head off to perform in Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia. The musicians will return home for a few weeks before heading out again.

“We’re a touring band,” Gonzalez says. “We feel touring is where it’s at — what you’re supposed to do.”